2017

Review: ‘The Little Foxes’ at the Manhattan Theatre Club

I’ve seen this play so many times. As a youngster of 19 I played “Horace” at NYU in a production that helped me along in my burgeoning acting career. Someone saw me in it, and suddenly I was playing...

Review: ‘The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking’ at New World Stages

Did you ever wonder what happens when “a duck walks into a bar”? Anthony Caporale (performer, playwright, and Director of Beverage Studies at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education) will tell you,...

Movie Review: ‘The Lost City of Z’

The Lost City of Z is a throwback adventure story. Based on the book of the same name by David Grann, the film follows Percy Fawcett at the tail end of the era of grand discoveries, when it was still...

In the Moment: ‘Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors’ to Benefit National Network to Prevent Domestic Violence

Launching an anthology of stories entitled Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors to benefit the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the professional story-telling group, Better Said Than Done will...

The Kennedy Center Announces Its 2017-2018 Theater Season: ‘Hamilton,’ ‘The Humans,’ ‘The Color Purple,’ ‘In the Heights,’ ‘An American in Paris,’ ‘On Your Feet,’ ‘The Book of Mormon,’ and More

From The Kennedy Center: 2017–2018 Theater Season: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced programming for its 2017–2018 theater season in an event on the famed Opera House...

Review: ‘Hello, Dolly!’ at the Shubert Theatre

I’m going to tell you a short story before I get to my review of Hello, Dolly! which is now playing at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway. I do so to give what’s now called “transparency” to my words in...

Review: ‘The Reckless Season’ at TheaterLab NYC

What’s so funny about suicide, cremation, drug addiction, PTSD, and familial dysfunction? Playwright Lauren Ferebee finds the dark comedy in all of that, along with the innate tragedy and irreality,...

Review: ‘West Side Story’ at The Media Theatre

Earlier this season, The Media Theatre presented Shakespeare’s classic Romeo & Juliet. Now they’re concluding their 2016-2017 season with a production of West Side Story, the musical that put a 20th...

Review: ‘The Fabulous Lipitones’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Written by John Markus and Mark St. Germain, whose previous writing credits include The Cosby Show, The Fabulous Lipitones is a light comedy that deals with deeper issues with the absolute certainty...

Review: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Robinwood Players

Director Mike Harsh’s concept to set Hagerstown Community College’s Jesus Christ Superstar in a modern day Syrian-esque refugee camp gives the show a renewed immediacy that grips the audience right...

In the Moment: ‘In the Heights’ (Spanish Version) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

New theater voices, heard in their own language and accessible to a wide audience. In a world-class area full of strivers like the DC metro area, it is about time. This admiring column is based...

Review: ‘The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington’ at Ally Theatre Company

“I do believe you darkies are trying to kill me,” says Martha Washington to her house slaves in this fantastical-historical play, just opened in a sensationally cheeky production at the new Ally...

Review: ‘Hairspray, Jr.’ at Ovations Theatre

Ovations Theatre hits another one out of the park with their production of Hairspray, Jr. performed entirely by 3rd through 9th graders. With a book by Marc O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music my Marc...

Conversations with Five Makers of ‘Forgotten Kingdoms’ at Rorschach Theatre

RANDY BAKER, Playwright Michael: Introduce yourself, Rorschach, and the play Forgotten Kingdoms in under 140 characters. Go! No, just kidding…just tell us something about yourself and about this crazy...

Review: ‘I Ought to Be in Pictures’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Is it nature or nurture? Is it innate personality or fearless optimism? Is the ability to see the glass half full, the willingness to take a chance, the inclination to ask or speak your mind without...

Review: ‘Ballet Across America’ at The Kennedy Center Opera House

What does 21st-century ballet look like? For The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America program, principle dancer and celeb ballerina Misty Copeland, 34, and 29-year-old New York City Ballet dancer...

Review: ‘Tribute’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

Scottie Templeton is dying. And with that deadly diagnosis, Tribute, by Bernard Slade, now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center, poignantly considers what’s really important in life and the...

Review: ‘The Assignment’ at A.R.T./New York Theatres

Socially relevant and thought-provoking, profoundly heartrending and often funny, playwright Camilo Almonacid’s The Assignment – inspired by a true story and developed by Houses on the Moon Theater...

‘Sally McCoy’: A Fully-Staged Workshop Performance at The Strand Theater

I’ve got to make this quick because there are only two more chances to see the fully staged, workshop performance of Sally McCoy at The Strand Theater Company (“Strand”), and one of them is in just a...

Review: ‘In the Heights’ (Spanish Version) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Those looking to add “a little bit of cinnamon” to their theatergoing should head to GALA Hispanic Theatre’s current production of In the Heights. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Tony Award-winning musical...

Magic Time!: ‘Smart People’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

Racism, presumed in polite circles to be no laughing matter, gets a hilariously smart deconstruction in Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People. Arena Stage has given this 2016 play its DC premiere in a nifty...

Review: ‘Annie’ at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric in Baltimore

This was the first time this reviewer had seen a show with a large, and largely young audience of elementary, middle and high schoolers. Hundreds swarmed into the cavernous Victorian-era building,...

Review: ‘The Fantasticks’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

The characters in the oldie and much appreciated allegorical goodie The Fantasticks (The off-Broadway incarnation ran for 42 years, and it is reportedly the World’s most performed musical) find out...

Who’s in Town?: Luis Salgado, Director and Choreographer of GALA Theatre’s Spanish Language ‘In the Heights’

¡No pare, sigue, sigue! Hamilton lovers rejoice! Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights premieres tonight at GALA Hispanic Theatre in the show’s first Spanish-language...

Review: ‘Smart People’ at Arena Stage

As soon as the lights come up on Lydia R. Diamond’s Smart People, now playing at Arena’s Kreeger Theater, the focus is clear. Or is it? Are four really “smart” people, who are only trying to save the...

My Battle with ALS and My Interview on Fox 5 DC Which Aired Last Night

I was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) 2 months ago. Since then my world has been turned upside down. I have accepted the grim news that this is one battle I might not win because there is...

Review: ‘Indecent’ at the Cort Theatre

Playwright Paula Vogel has been writing plays for almost forty years, in which she has dealt with issues that fueled her life. She’s been particularly interested in exploring the need for theatre to...

Interview: A Q & A with Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ Producer and Cast: Part One: Maureen Rogers and Tania Rosa Bindhoff-Frieswyk

Laurel Mill Playhouse is presenting Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore from April 28-May 21, 2017 at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, 508 Main Street, Laurel MD. H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a...

Magic Time!: ‘Or,’ at Round House Theatre

As play titles go, Or, is one of the most ungoogleable. It is a search engine dead end. And as an original mashup of past and present, prose and poetry, and performative purposes, Liz Duffy Adams’s...

Review: ‘Fun Home’ at The National Theatre

I never made it up to New York to see Fun Home. I did the same thing with The Ramones; it just always seemed like there’d be time to do it later. Fortunately for me – and unlike my gaffe with Joey,...

Spine: ‘Or,’ not as in Either, at Round House Theatre

First of all, for theatre lovers, there is nothing as delightful as watching three top notch actors have fun on stage, and with Holly Twyford, Gregory Linington, and Erin Weaver you’ll see three of...

Review: ‘War Paint’ at the Nederlander Theatre

This project began with a fine title, one that conjurs up a fun musical once you know it’s about the battle for supremacy in the field of female skincare and beauty. It sounded like even more fun when...

Review: ‘Something Rotten!’ at Hippodrome Theatre

Fans of Broadway musicals won’t get more bang for their entertainment buck this whole season than at Something Rotten! Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has been on a roll when it comes to offering great...

Review: ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ at the Forrest Theatre

When John Cameron Mitchell (book) and Stephen Trask (music and lyrics) were developing their gender-bending rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch for its Off-Broadway premiere in 1998, the Berlin...

Talking Marriage and Farce with the Couples of 1812 Productions’ ‘Happy Birthday’

Celebrating its 20th anniversary season, 1812 Productions – Philadelphia’s all-comedy theater company – is now in rehearsals for its springtime offering, the local premiere of French playwright Marc...

Review: ‘OR,’ at Round House Theatre

The revolution will not be televised. Nope, it is on stage at Round House Theatre with a playful, headlong charge of a wild comedy. The comedy is called OR, a fictionalized account of free-spirited,...

Review: ‘That Face’ at Baltimore Center Stage

On Saturday, I attended the inaugural production in the newest post-renovation Baltimore Center Stage (“BCS”) performance space – the descriptively-named Third Space. BCS chose a play with its own...

Michael Biello and Dan Martin Are Grooming for the Opening of ‘Marry Harry’

Philadelphia-based artists Dan Martin (composer) and Michael Biello (lyricist) are about to make their Off-Broadway debut this month with Marry Harry at The York Theatre Company. The longtime creative...

Review: Ballet Across America Showcases a New Day in Dance at The Kennedy Center

Since its debut in 2008, The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America series continues to showcase the best of ballet from regional companies across the nation. This fourth time around, there are the...

Review: ‘Pygmalion’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater’s production of the George Bernard Shaw classic Pygmalion is an entertaining, thought-provoking show. Directed by Jim Knipple, it combines great acting with a clever set and...

Who’s in Town?: Alan Cumming Discusses His Upcoming Cabaret Show ‘Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs’ at The Kennedy Center on April 29th

If you are like me, you would have given your right arm for an invitation to “Club Cumming,” the nightly party Alan Cumming held in his dressing room at Studio 54 after performances of Cabaret, the...

Review: Geoffrey Keezer Trio with Special Guest Gillian Margot at the KC Jazz Club

As soon as the Trio finished Thelonius Monk’s “Brilliant Corners, the KC Jazz Club exploded in applause. Some music is not listened to: it is experienced, your body vibrating like a window to the...

Review: ‘She Loves Me’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players have put on a delicious production of the musical She Loves Me. The 1964 musical by Fiddler on the Roof Composer Jerry Bock and Lyricist Sheldon Harnick and book writer Joe...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

If you’ve thought to yourself “I will never see another rip-off of the Peter Pan story ever again”, I totally understand where you are coming from. And I definitely urge you to reconsider and see the...

Review: ‘Oslo’ at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center

I had only dim memories of the 1993 agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, which had been secretly arranged by a Norwegian couple, who had spent from April 1992 until September of the...

Review: ‘The Magic Play’ at Olney Theatre Center

In the art of magic, Andrew Hinderaker has found a vivid metaphor for the dynamics of honesty, trust and control that underpin our most important relationships. His immensely entertaining and profound...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at McLean Community Players

Spring has sprung, the dogwoods are in full flower, and there’s a truly delicious cat-fight to be had in McLean—take my word for it. Now that the solemnities of the season have been properly observed...

Review: ‘The Late Wedding’ at The Hub Theatre

Once again, Artistic Director Helen Murray and The Hub Theatre are producing a seductive play meant to kindle sparks for adventurous theater-goers. The Hub is constantly on the hunt for small gems...

Film Review: ‘Colossal’ at Area Theaters

Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal is not a film that is terribly interested in explaining things, which probably is for the best in a movie about a woman connected to a kaiju that appears out of nowhere to...

Review: ‘Henry V’ at We Happy Few Productions

What’s the impact of war on the common man? Do the sins of leaders trickle down to their soldiers? Is patriotism dead? What does it mean to be a leader? These are just some of the themes explored in...